1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper-piece discrimination device of a paper processor, particularly relates to the device and the method for paper-piece discrimination, which discriminate the denomination of a part of a banknote (a piece of paper) with more than half part missing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Paper processors, which receive money, such as ATM (Automatic Teller's Machine), keep paper in the machine and carry out the transaction of deposit and payment following the command input of the customer. Inside of these paper processors conducted is the discrimination process of the type (such as denominations) of the deposited and paid paper (such as banknotes).
This discrimination process is generally carried out by the following manner. The machine divides the paper into a plurality of minute domains, and measures the shape and shade of each minute domain by optical censors and thickness censors. Then, the measured value is converted to gradation value by quantifying process and stored in the machine. A certain level of image manipulation (such as the tilt correction and the color shade correction processing) is applied to the image data that consists of the obtained gradation value. The image data obtained from the above manipulation allows the discrimination of the types (denominations) of the paper (banknotes) by being compared with the template (the image data made from a genuine banknote).
However, the existing paper processors discriminate only banknotes with a normal shape and size, and reject the abnormal-shaped banknotes judging them as discrimination error. This is because the existing paper processors discriminate the type of paper by the pattern matching of image data of the whole paper with the template. Such existing paper processors, as a matter of course, were not able to identify the denominations of a part of banknote that is ripped and missing more than half banknote due to the lack of minute domains that are to be compared with the template.
However, in recent years as the use of paper processors for 24-hour operation or in unattended stores has become popularized, it has become desirable to accurately fix the balance of banknotes in the banknote storage of paper processors. In the paper processors, deposited banknotes and banknotes taken out of banknote storage for withdrawal are sometimes ripped while they are carried to the discrimination section of the machine. In such case, for the owners of the paper processors, there is a large difference between rejection with the identification of denominations and rejection without the identification of denominations of the banknote, and the rejection with the identification of denomination is more preferable. However, the discrimination section of the existing paper processors rejects the ripped banknotes without identifying their type (the denomination).
It is the object of the present invention to provide the paper-piece discrimination device and the method of paper-piece discrimination that securely identify the denomination of a part of a banknote, or a piece of paper, with more than a half of the banknote part missing.